Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2000 10:07:10 -0400 To: lwn@lwn.net From: Leah Barrett <lbarrett@schwartz-pr.com> Subject: Andover.Net and ibooks.com Launch First Linux/Open Source ANDOVER.NET AND IBOOKS.COM LAUNCH THE FIRST LINUX/OPEN SOURCE DIGITAL BOOKSTORE Digital Book Store Contains Thousands of Books For Sale and Provides Free Online Access to Linux Documentation Project Guides AUSTIN, TX AND ACTON, MASS.--April 04, 2000--ibooks.com (www.ibooks.com), the leading e-publishing company for online reference books, and Andover.Net (NASDAQ: ANDN), the leading Linux destination on the Internet, today announced a partnership and the launch of the first Linux/Open Source online digital bookstore (http://linux.ibooks.com). This co-branded site joins the ranks of Andover.Net's leading Linux/Open Source news, community and developer sites Slashdot.org and Freshmeat.net, providing Andover.Net's 3 million monthly visitors with direct access to the most comprehensive set of Linux/Open Source related books and documentation available anywhere. In addition to being available on linux.ibooks.com, this online digital bookstore is also available by clicking on the Linux Documentation links on the Andover.Net network of Web sites. Updated weekly with fresh Open Source content, this digital book store contains thousands of digital books for sale from premier publishers such as Coriolis, John Wiley, O'Reilly, Sam's, Sybex and Que. In keeping with Andover.Net's commitment to the free exchange of information and resources throughout the Linux/Open Source community, Linuxbooks.com also offers a number of free resources. A total of 12 online digital books including the Linux Documentation Project (LDP), GNU/Linux operating system user guides and HOWTO's, as well as Internet Request for Comment (RFC) documents are now available free-of-charge in the ibooks.com powerful digital format. "Andover.Net's network of Web sites is an extremely important part of the Open Source community," said Sean Devine, vice president of business development and marketing for ibooks.com. "We believe that offering the Linux Documentation Project in the ibooks.com digital book format along with books from premier publishers provides the Linux/Open Source community and IT professionals with an incredibly powerful service." Visitors to this co-branded Linux book store can conduct full-text searches across the entire bookstore, preview for-sale books prior to purchase using ibooks.com's patent-pending "previewing" technology, add books to an online shopping cart and store an unlimited number of free and purchased books on a personal digital bookshelf hosted by ibooks.com. Users can access their personal digital bookshelf via any standard browser-based device, any time of the day. "Our goal is to provide Andover.Net users with the most complete and up-to-date repository of Linux and Open Source related information," said Bruce Twickler, president and CEO of Andover.Net. "ibooks.com's unique digital format for online reference books and full-text searching capabilities are a fantastic addition to the Andover.Net network that help us continue to provide increased value to the Linux and Open Source communities." Under the terms of the partnership, Andover.Net is incorporating all traffic from the co-branded site into its overall traffic numbers and is selling and managing the site's advertising space. ibooks.com and Andover.Net are sharing revenues generated by selling online digital books to site visitors. In addition, ibooks.com is advertising its main digital book service (www.ibooks.com) on the Andover.Net network. About Andover.Net Andover.Net (NASDAQ: ANDN) is the leading Linux destination on the Internet. Serving 60 million page impressions to over 3 million users each month, Andover.Net (andover.net) includes the largest news/community site, Slashdot (slashdot.org); the largest site for programmer resources, Freshmeat.net (www.freshmeat.net); QuestionExchange (www.questionexchange.com), providing online Linux support; and the popular developer e-commerce site, ThinkGeek (www.thinkgeek.com). With these sites and our other Linux sites such as FreeCode (www.freecode.com) and LinuxDaveCentral (www.linux.davecentral.com), Andover.Net accounts for over 50% of the visits to Linux destinations on the Internet. Andover.Net also includes cross-platform sites such as MediaBuilder (www.mediabuilder.com) that provide programmer and developer resources for users of many popular operating systems in addition to Linux such as Windows, UNIX and Macintosh. Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this news release are forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, Andover.Net's limited operating history, expectation that Andover will incur substantial losses in the future; Andover's reliance on Linux/open source community; Andover's heavy reliance on advertising revenues; intense competition and other risks listed in Andover.Net's S-1 registration statement. About ibooks.com Founded in April 1999, ibooks.com is the leading e-publishing company for online reference books and offers the first integrated service for effectively evaluating, purchasing and immediately using digital reference books from industry leading publishers and technology companies. The service, available at www.ibooks.com, is the first service to allow users to preview digital books prior to purchase, buy online digital reference books one-at-a-time, and store digital books on a personal digital bookshelf. The company is privately held with funding from TL Ventures among other venture capital firms and angel investors. ibooks.com is headquartered in Austin, Texas and can be reached at 512-478-2700 or by visiting the company's Web site at www.ibooks.com. ### Andover.Net, Slashdot, Freshmeat, MediaBuilder, Internet Traffic Report, DaveCentral, FreeCode, are trademarks of Andover.Net. ****************************************************************************** Leah Barrett Assistant Account Executive Schwartz Communications, Inc. Prospect Place, 230 Third Avenue Waltham, MA 02451 p. (781) 684-0770 f. (781) 684-6500 lbarrett@schwartz-pr.com